If there’s one thing I love about The Walking Dead, it’s that the villains of the show have always been relatively memorable. Granted, they all began small, building up more and more to the one that we all know now — Negan, played by the amazing Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
While it’s still wild that Morgan is playing Negan all these years later, there’s a good reason for it — and it’s that he’s just so good as the character. People love him and so do I. There’s a reason why he is one of the two leads in The Walking Dead spinoff, Dead City.
Looking back, I actually think Morgan’s casting was the beginning of the downfall of the original show. And I’ll tell you exactly why.
Morgan’s casting was so electric, but it was wasted on cliffhangers and poorly written scenes
Negan, in the comics, is terrifying, and rightfully so. There are plenty of moments that are utterly scary, and some were properly brought to the screen in the series. All in all, Morgan was the perfect person to play him. He was able to bring that classic charisma but also provide just the right amount of terrifying to make viewers nervous about him.
But that’s the thing — while he was perfect in the role, there was a lot of time when he felt wasted as a character. His introduction was more about Glenn and the big moment than it was about Negan. It wasn’t really until later in his tenure on the show that we got to dig into his complexity a whole lot more, but that would have done well when he was the active villain of the show, when Rick was still there.
Don’t get me wrong, Negan is responsible for some satisfying deaths, and he’s had some good moments, but many of the scenes a lot of people remember him from are due to cliffhangers, like Glenn's death, or scenes that felt like they didn’t belong. His best scenes are just Negan riffing with other characters.
I mean, seriously, look at a compilation of Negan’s best moments online, and I assure you, most of it is just Morgan messing around and saying the craziest stuff that works for Negan.
No villain ever surpassed him
This is the bigger deal. Wasted potential? Eh, we at least got to see more of his character later on in the show and especially a heck of a lot more in Dead City. The bigger issue is that the conflict never felt real again.
Negan’s arc felt like the perfect place to end the series, because in reality, what villain could really surpass him? He lasted for a whole two seasons, and no one’s charisma could even compare. No one hit the same. Not Alpha or Beta, nor the Whisperers, nor the Commonwealth or anything else. After Negan, the show just wasn’t as thrilling anymore.
I do think Glenn’s death changed a lot, and many viewers dropped off after that big cliffhanger that Negan was a part of. The bigger issue is that so many people were so locked in on Negan that when he was done, what was the point? No one felt like a big deal anymore.
Then, Rick was “killed off,” and we all know what happened after that — so many fewer viewers.
The Walking Dead never quite recovered after Negan's entrance and exit, and I don’t really blame the show. How can you surpass someone like Negan? It just doesn’t work like that. Sadly, I think that’s a huge reason why the show saw declining interest in its later season.
If you are interested in watching or revisting The Walking Dead, you can check out all 11 seasons on Netflix.
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